Commercial Banks’ Attributes and Annual Voluntary Disclosure: The case of Libya

Abstract

Abstract

This study aims to investigateempirically whether there is any significant association between seven commercial bank-specific attributes (i.e. age of bank, size of bank, bank liquidity position, profitability, government ownership, foreign ownership, and listing status) and the extent of voluntary disclosure in the annual reports. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression model is used to test the association between bank attributes and voluntary disclosure. The results of regression analysis indicate that banks size and listing status are significantly associated with the level of voluntary information disclosures. The findings also revealed the extent of voluntary disclosure in annual reports is notsignificantly influenced by other bank’s attributes.The current empirical study contributes to that investigation in the context of banking companies andprovides new insight into determinants of voluntary disclosure in the annual reports of listed and unlisted commercial banks.

Keywords: Commercial Bank Attributes; Voluntary Disclosure;Annual reports; Libya